21st September 2019

Vince, Jake, Jon, Brockers, Nick and Tav.

A good strong team today meant that the spoil could be transported back to the bottom of the entrance rather than being temporarily stashed in the lake chamber.

I went ahead to reel in the wire and to check that all was good with the IRS, and it was.

There was plenty of gravel, cobbles and boulders of fractured rock to be shifted (I offered to swap places with Jon and Nick but they both declined). As the spoil was removed the then the passage became more spacious and was rather comfortable, digging was eventually possible from a hands and knees position and the skip run was fine. When the loose stuff had been cleared away there was some hammer and barring to be done to remove most of the fractured rock leaving a clean ‘face’ for the next application of IRS on Tuesday. It’s a bit easier to get into the aven but still on the snug side, that can be remedied. Jon came forward to have a look at the future digging prospects before going back to the cave entrance to assist in clearing the spoil out of the cave. A total of 71 loads were hauled out of the cave, 47 bags and 24 loads of rock. Another fine effort!